


Idle Hands

by TinyFakeFanficRock



Series: Park's Quests [6]
Category: Fallout (Video Games), Fallout: New Vegas
Genre: Gen, Knitting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-31
Updated: 2017-01-31
Packaged: 2018-09-21 02:59:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 883
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9528851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinyFakeFanficRock/pseuds/TinyFakeFanficRock
Summary: Originally written for the Fallout Kink Meme.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written for the Fallout Kink Meme.

Bernie stepped out of the elevator, set down her bulging duffel bag, shook a little more of Zion Canyon out of her stringy black hair, and only then realized that the presidential suite at the Lucky 38 was clicking.

She followed the sound to its source and found the sitting room full of her companions, all with their hands full of -- knitting? Couldn't be. Bernie pushed her sunglasses up onto her head and looked again. It was. Everyone was stitching away except ED-E, who hovered beside Veronica, projecting a grid full of strange symbols on the wall nearby, and Rex, who was missing. It looked like the weirdest meeting ever of her mother's old knitting group. Bernie just prayed no one would try to make her attempt intarsia this time.

"Bernie! You're back!" Veronica set down her project, a ... something ... in ridiculously fine thread, and ran over to hug her. "How was the trip?"

"Full of the kind of weird shit that always happens to me. I see you've all been bus--"

"WELCOME HOME, JIMMY! I KNIT YOU A SWEATER WHILE YOU WERE GONE. IT SHOULD BE BIG ENOUGH TO FIT OVER YOUR COMBAT ARMOR." Lily brandished a cavernous black cardigan. She'd worked bands of Fair Isle grenades around the bust and sleeves. 

"My weapon of choice and everything." Bernie pulled the sweater on under Lily's expectant gaze. "Oh, and it's soft. Thanks, Lily; it'll keep me warm at Jacobstown."

"MY LITTLE PUMPKIN IS HOME. I'M GOING TO MAKE COOKIES TO CELEBRATE." Lily trundled off toward the kitchen, humming contentedly.

Bernie turned back to the rest of her friends. "Where's Rex?"

"Lily finished your sweater and started making hats for everyone," explained Veronica. "He's been hiding downstairs ever since."

"Got it. I'll lure him back up with some Fancy Lads later. So, er, when did the rest of you learn how to knit?"

Arcade looked up from the project in his lap, a white blanket covered in a complex thicket of cables. "Well, I already knew how --"

Bernie rolled her eyes at him. "Of course _you_ did."

"Stereotypes, Bernie? You wound me. I don't attribute your atrocious fashion sense to your predilection towards the Sapphic arts, so please don't assume --"

"I didn't say it because you like men, and you know it. I said it because the only thing you like more than men is learning, and the only thing you like more than learning is showing it off." Bernie grinned, then walked over and ruffled his hair. Might as well take advantage of the rare opportunity to reach it.

Arcade huffed, though probably more in response to the mussed hair than Bernie's teasing. "Hey, Julie taught me because she says knitting maintains manual dexterity, which I imagine you want me to have, considering how often I have to sew you up."

"My hero." Bernie batted her eyelashes, and then it was Arcade's turn to roll his eyes at her.

"Anyway," said Veronica, "when your caravan went overdue, Lily got worried about you, so she started knitting to calm herself down. Then she got lonely and wanted people to knit with her. And --"

"-- when a big-ass Nightkin who chops people up with a fuckin' Vertibird blade tells you to cast on, you cast the fuck on."

"... I see. What are you making there, Cass?"

"Whiskey bottle cozy." She tried it on the bottle in her lap. "'Bout halfway done."

"The cozy, or the whiskey?"

Cass laughed. "Both. When I'm done I might make something for this cute trooper I met the other day. Something he can model for me. Maybe a little thong or --"

"So! You're concentrating hard on that scarf you have going there, Boone. Is it garter stitch? It looks nice." Bernie knew she was babbling, but as long as it kept her from picturing Cass and her cute trooper, she didn't care.

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Let me know when you want to try purling and I'll help you again," said Arcade.

"This works fine," Boone replied, fast enough that Bernie desperately wished she'd seen his first lessons.

"Hey, you knit in the round, you only need the one stitch," said Raul, waving his handful of double-pointed needles. 

"Socks?"

"At my age, boss, all a man wants is comfortable feet."

Bernie glanced meaningfully toward the clatter in the kitchen and lowered her voice. "You all do realize that Lily's gone now? So you don't have to knit anymore."

"I'm totally finishing this shawl. It's going to look so great with the dress you gave me. You don't mind that I programmed ED-E to show me the lace chart, right?"

"No, no, that's fine. But what about the rest of you?"

"Keeps my hands busy so I don't get bored and start trying to fix stuff that isn't broken. Well, that and ... boss, it's kind of relaxing."

"Yeah. You focus on that, get your mind off ... other stuff." Boone stopped and scowled at his scarf. "Think I have more stitches than I started with."

"Well, if you don't like it, we can always use it as a tourniquet in a pinch. So, Bernie, what are you going to make? A messenger bag?" Veronica ducked before Bernie even threw the pillow.

Still, she knew when she was outnumbered. "Maybe I'll knit Rex a sweater."


End file.
